Wildfire Smoke Damage: Preparing Your Home

The Coachella Valley sits in wildfire country, and the smoke season comes every year. The smoke does not need a fire in your street to reach your home — it travels on the wind, and it finds every gap in a house: the vents, the windows, the doors, the attic. This post explains how to ready your home before smoke season, how to seal the gaps, and how to protect the air inside — and what to do when the smoke gets in anyway.

The second thing to understand is that wildfire smoke is not the same as the smoke from a house fire. It is finer, it travels further, and it settles in the same places — the walls, the ceilings, the ducts, the fabrics — but it arrives over days and weeks, not in a single night. The provider treats wildfire smoke the same way house-fire smoke is treated: the dry pass, the wet pass, and the treatment that seals the surface so the smell cannot come back.

How Wildfire Smoke Reaches a Home

Wildfire smoke travels on the wind, and it finds every gap in a house: the vents, the windows, the doors, the attic. It comes in through the vents that were left open, through the windows that do not seal, through the doors that have a gap at the bottom, and through the attic where the smoke rises. A house that looks sealed can still let smoke in, because the smoke is finer than the gaps it passes through.

The smoke settles in the same places house-fire smoke settles: the walls, the ceilings, the ducts, the fabrics. It settles in the paint, in the plaster, in the insulation behind the walls, and in the fabric of sofas, curtains and carpets. It settles in the ducts, where it travels during the fire, and it comes back through the vents when the air conditioning is turned on. The provider maps the smoke the same way house-fire smoke is mapped.

The smoke arrives over days and weeks, not in a single night, and that is what makes it different. A house fire is a single event, and the smoke is cleaned in a single job. A wildfire season is weeks of smoke, and the smoke builds up day by day, and the cleaning is done when the season is over — or when the smoke has settled enough to be cleaned. The provider will tell you when the job can be done, and what it will cover.

Sealing the Gaps Before Smoke Season

Seal the gaps before smoke season. Check the windows and the doors, and replace the seals that are worn or cracked. Check the vents, and close the ones that can be closed. Check the attic, and seal the gaps where the smoke can get in. A house that is sealed before the season is a house that lets in less smoke, and a house that lets in less smoke is a house that costs less to clean.

Seal the ducts. The smoke travels through the ducts during a fire, and the soot settles in them, and the smell comes back through the vents when the air conditioning is turned on. The provider seals the vents before cleaning, cleans the ducts, and treats them, so the smoke does not spread to rooms that were not affected. If the ducts are not cleaned, the smoke will spread every time the air conditioning runs.

Seal the attic. The smoke rises, and the attic is where it settles first, and the insulation in the attic holds it. The provider checks the attic first, because the attic is where the smoke is thickest, and the attic is where the cleaning starts. If the attic is not cleaned, the smoke will come down through the ceiling and into the rooms below.

Protecting the Air Inside

Protect the air inside with a HEPA filter. A HEPA filter traps the fine particles the smoke leaves behind, and it runs through the season, not just on the smoky days. The provider uses an air scrubber, which is a HEPA-filtered machine that traps the particles, and the scrubber runs through the job and pulls the fine particles out of the air. A household fan is not a HEPA filter, and it will not trap the particles.

Keep the windows closed and the air conditioning on recirculate, so the air inside is the air that has been filtered, not the air from outside. Do not run the air conditioning on fresh air intake during a smoke event, because it brings the smoke in from outside. The provider will tell you what to do with the air conditioning, and when it is safe to run it normally again.

Keep the room closed, and keep children and pets well away from a smoke room until it has been cleaned. The smoke is fine, acidic and persistent, and the particles are small enough to get into the lungs. Children are more vulnerable than adults, and people with breathing difficulties are more vulnerable too, and they should be kept well away from a smoke room until it has been cleaned.

What to Do When the Smoke Gets In

When the smoke gets in, photograph the rooms before anything is moved or cleaned. Photograph every room, every surface, and every item, and photograph the rooms that look untouched too, because smoke travels further than flames, and a room that looks clean can still carry a fine soot film and a smell that matters for the claim. The photographs are the record your insurer will read.

Call (561) 566-7293 and describe the smoke — where it is, how far it went, how long it has been in the house, and whether the room smells. The provider will tell you whether the job needs a visit, and what the visit will cover, before any work starts. The provider will not quote a price over the phone, because a price without a walk-through would be a guess, but the provider will tell you what the dry pass is, what the wet pass is, and what the job needs.

Do not wipe the soot with water or a household cleaner, because that smears it and drives it into the paint and plaster, where it sets as a stain. Do not sweep it, do not dust it, and do not run a household vacuum over it, because all of those spread fine particles into the air. The cleaning starts when the provider arrives, and it starts with an assessment, not with a mop.

After the Season Ends

After the season ends, the cleaning starts. The provider maps the smoke the same way house-fire smoke is mapped — room by room, surface by surface — and the cleaning follows the map. The dry pass lifts the soot, the wet pass follows, and the treatment seals the surface so the smell cannot come back. The provider will tell you what the cleaning found, and what still needs to be done, before the next step starts.

After the season ends, the ducts are cleaned. The smoke travelled through the ducts during the season, and the soot settled in them, and the smell comes back through the vents when the air conditioning is turned on. The provider seals the vents before cleaning, cleans the ducts, and treats them, so the smell does not come back through the vents. If the ducts are not cleaned, the smell will come back every time the air conditioning runs.

After the season ends, the record is made. The provider photographs the damage, lists the contents, and reads the moisture, and the record goes to you for your files and your insurance claim. The provider will walk the property with you at the end, room by room, and the job is not finished until you have seen it and the smell is gone. The smell is the last thing to go, and it is the thing that tells you whether the job is done.

Preparing for Wildfire Smoke, in Order

1. Seal the gaps — Check the windows, doors, vents and attic, and replace the seals that are worn or cracked.
2. Protect the air — Run a HEPA filter through the season, keep the windows closed, and run the air conditioning on recirculate.
3. Photograph the smoke — Photograph every room before anything is moved or cleaned, because the photographs are the record the insurer reads.
4. Call the provider — Call (561) 566-7293 and describe the smoke — where it is, how far it went, and how long it has been there.
5. Clean after the season — The dry pass lifts the soot, the wet pass follows, and the ducts are cleaned so the smell cannot come back.

Mistakes That Let Wildfire Smoke In

• Leaving the vents open during a smoke event
• Running the air conditioning on fresh air intake
• Wiping soot with water, which drives it into the surface
• Cleaning before photographing the smoke damage
• Skipping the duct cleaning, which lets the smell come back

For help with this in Coachella, see Wildfire Smoke Damage Cleanup in Coachella — or go back to the Coachella fire damage restoration home page.